Return to Merion

Meroin Golf club, site of 16 USGA events over the years, is auditioning for a U.S. Open by hosting the U.S. Amateur.

August 17, 2005|By Mark Wogenrich Of The Morning Call

Steve Elkington saw the gnarly rough, the pearl-green fairways and the wicker-basket flagsticks and called it "the best-looking course I've ever seen."

A few weeks before his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, Elkington, like so many other pros, made what amounts to a pilgrimage. For players on the PGA Tour, that's the only way to see Merion Golf Club these days. And plenty of them go.

Chad Campbell was there recently. So was Ernie Els, before his season-ending injury.

The club wants to see these guys again in a tournament setting. Next week is an important step in that direction.

The U.S. Amateur returns to Merion on Aug. 22-28 for its sixth visit and first since 1989. The game has changed dramatically since then, and Merion has attempted to go with it.

In the past 10 years, the Ardmore club has undertaken a dramatic lengthening and restoration of its East Course. It has done so with the specific intent of returning championship golf, specifically the U.S. Open, to Merion.

"It's no secret there's interest in us hosting a U.S. Open," Merion general chairman Bill Iredale said. "We and the USGA are very interested in seeing how this course holds up [during the U.S. Amateur]."

Merion's East Course -- which golf architect Pete Dye has called "a wee wisp of golf's ancestral land spirited away to a Pennsylvania valley" -- has been witness to many of golf's singular moments. In 1930, Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur to clinch the historic Grand Slam.

In 1950, Ben Hogan completed his recovery from a horrific car accident the previous year by winning the U.S. Open. And in 1971, Lee Trevino outdueled Jack Nicklaus in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open.

But the club last entertained the U.S. Open in 1981, before the titanium-driver and solid-core-ball revolution. The USGA took its premier championship elsewhere because technology had neutralized Merion's subtleties and the tournament's expanding infrastructure had outgrown the club.

Merion's ambitious updating project began in 1996, when the club closed the East Course for one year to remove several hundred trees and reseed the greens. Then it hired architect Tom Fazio to restore the course's defining bunkers. Fazio's group dug out, cleaned and installed drainage and watering systems to many of the course's 128 flash-faced bunkers.

Two yeas ago, Merion began a project that added about 400 yards to the East Course without compromising its integrity. Fourteen holes were lengthened, some by inspired methods.

At the par-4 14th, for instance, the club raised a practice putting green level with the hole's tee box. The back tees now are part of that putting green, which added 30 yards to the hole without changing the shot's demanding look.

Merion will play as a 6,846-yard, par-70 course for the U.S. Amateur, 546 yards shorter than last week's PGA Championship at Baltusrol. Though the course has five par 4s of 367 yards or shorter, it counterbalances them with penal bunkering and testy shotmaking.

"This will be the first event here in 16 years that tested players who hit the ball as far as those who play in the U.S. Open," said Craig Ammerman, a member of the USGA's executive committee. "We know how guys play 500-yard par 4s. We're interested in how they'll play a 300-yard par 4."

Asked if Merion could hold a U.S. Open, Elkington said, "Of course it could. But I'm not sure the USGA would want to."

Ammerman said the USGA is interested in returning its marquee event to Merion -- if the tricky logistics can be negotiated. A U.S. Open requires 40,000-square-foot merchandise, hospitality and media tents, acres of corporate hospitality and enough room for a network broadcast center.

The course's tight size would mean an attendance cap of 30,000 and some intricate planning to manage gallery flow. Security, a negligible factor at the 1981 U.S. Open, now requires significant attention.

But the USGA and Merion have discussed solutions. The club can use its West Course for practice and hospitality facilities, and neighboring Haverford College is a potential site for some of the periphery.

"We're wary of saying to the corporate community, "We're having the U.S. Open in Philadelphia, so don't come,"' Ammerman said. "There are many logistical issues, but the USGA and Merion agreed it can be handled."

Still, a potential U.S. Open at Merion is a distant prospect. The USGA has booked sites through 2012, and 2013 is the 100th anniversary of Francis Ouimet's victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. A centennial celebration is possible.

"It's a matter of the USGA sitting down and saying, "What's important to us,"' Nantz said. "Is it more important to sell a lot of hospitality tents or is it important to take our great championship to the best courses in America?"

"I like that, Jim," CBS analyst Lanny Wadkins chimed in. "The players of today would love to see [the U.S. Open] go to Merion. The only measuring stick you have between today's players and those of my generation are the golf courses. Unless you go see Tiger Woods play at Merion, it's just difficult to compare one generation to the next."

mark.wogenrich@mcall.com

610-820-6588

*** TICKETS AVAILABLE

Tickets are on sale for next week's U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore. Daily tickets are $15 for adults or $60 for a weekly pass. Children under 17 are admitted free when accompanied by a paying adult. For information, call the ticket office at (484) 708-1050.